development work and faith

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In K.

For the last year or so, it has been relatively safe in K. Nonetheless, there is still a 6pm-7am curfew, and we do not go outside the office/ guesthouse compound anyway, except to visit the project sites. At nights, to reduce risk of robbery and kidnap, the compound are double locked, and we sleep behind barred doors. Too bad if there is a fire inside.

The links between the monastic life and the aidworker life in places like this are many: mainly male environment, simple food, rotten beds, basic amenities, austere conditions. And we share a kind of faith too, in the value of what we are doing, that it is somehow worthwhile, signficant. Then again, there are similarities with prison life too: locked in, basic amenities, mostly male, lots of razor wire, cycnism, .
Today is Friday. The holy day, and a day of rest. We seem to all be hunched over laptops, working.